On Geopolitics: Spaces and Places

The study of international relations sits at the convergence of human inquiry that crosses both time and space. The aim here is to elaborate on the spatial context of international relations, to contrast it to the temporal context, and to indicate broadly the continuing importance of the geopolitical spatial context to the study of international relations. I briefly demonstrate how this relationship is based not on an earlier approach based on geographic determinism, but rather possibilismthe possibilities presented by the spatial, geographic, and geopolitical context. In elaborating on space and place, I return to the central research focus of my career: the dynamism and importance of the spatial context for understanding international relations, along with the need to take both time and space into account, the need to appreciate both a locational view and the perceptual/symbolic/constructed view of space and place, and to do so within an increasingly globalized, interdependent, and transnational world system.